I received a car rental charge on my credit card after my return to the States, half of which is unexplainable. Part of the charge is for RR station pick-up and the road tax, but I never received an explanation for the other half. AutoEurope tried to get an answer, and finally is offering me $30 (much less than what is unexplainable) as a good will gesture because it received no explanation. Which is the Consumer Protection agency that might be able to prod Autoeurop in Périgueux to provide at a minimum the documentation for the charges? Kerouac?

There are a host of additional fees/taxes levied upon those who rent cars. Are you under 25 years old, did you rent a car with automatic transmission, was there more than one driver, did you receive a ticket of any kind (you may not even know if you did), did you return the car with a full tank of gas? Any of these items can incur additional fees.

The simplest course of action would be to contest the fees with your credit card company and let rental company make the explanations.

Note: Autoeurope is a US based broker and has no office in Périgueux.

Sarastro,

Sorry, I meant Europcar. None of the extra conditions mentioned apply, or if they did, I should receive a justification. It's too late to contest via the credit card, I relied on Autoeurope because when asking about contesting it via credit card, I was told that the signed contract is what rules, and that includes something about other charges. I felt that Autoeurope would have more experience in getting some explanation from the rental agency.

Relying upon Autoeurope is fine as long as the charges are from Autoeurope. None of the Autoeurope quotes given to those of us in North America include fees/taxes. (This is not the case with quotes from autoeurope.fr).

The Autoeurope vouchers state that fees/taxes are collected and billed by the return rental car office. The two more nebulous charges are tickets or fuel charges.

Unless the customer or rental agent speak a common language (English or French) complaints can result about mis-understood gas charges. Europcar has been pushing a pay up front for gas, return the car empty plan which has confused a number of renters. A misunderstanding here could cause a bigger final bill from the rental company than might otherwise be anticipated.

If you were ticketed by the French police for speeding (there are unmanned radar cameras all over France now) the rental company pays the fine and adds 25€ service fee. Many, if not most, of these cameras are hidden and it is very easy to be ticketed without your knowledge. This would commonly result in a charge around the area of 100€ and it too can cause a great deal of confusion.

While the contract with Europcar clearly outlines these charges (clearly in French that is) mistakes can happen. There are two ways to really rectify a mistaken charge from Europcar: either call them directly for an explanation or contest the charge through your credit card. Autoeurope may offer to assist you, but they will have little power of resolution.

Have you received the "final papers" from Europcar yet??? It takes abour 3-4 weeks after you returned the car to get them mailed to you.

I recently received my final invoice from Europcar in France for a 4 rental this past June/July, and it included these extras:

Ecologic (whatever that is)................................25.20E
Licences & fees ...............................................20. 44E
Prem/Railway charge (picked car up at the RR station) 31.50
Additional Drivers........................................... ......29.26

VAT on above............................................. ........20.85

Total............................................. 127.25E

What did your Europcar invoice say??

Stu Dudley

<i>Ecologic (whatever that is)................................25.20E</i>

This is most likely for a car with an automatic transmission but it sometimes applies to certain luxury models. Typically the charge is 5€ per day for each of the first 6 days.

If you speak French, I would call the Europcar office in Perigueux. I have rented dozens and dozens of cars from that office, and have always found the staff to be very accommodating and willing to explain things when I'm confused about charges.

"Taxe écologique" is based on the amount of CO2 emissions. It applies to all cars whether they are automatic or not.

I receive all of my Europcar bills by email. If you email them with your contract number (or at least the date, place, name, etc., of rental), they will send you a pdf file of it. Just go to the www.europcar.fr site.

I am sure all cars have differing C02 footprints but I have never paid a ¨Taxe écologique¨

However, the Autoeurope vouchers issued in the USA clearly state that renters driving automobiles with automatic transmissions will pay an ¨environmental tax¨ of 5€ per day with a maximum charge of 30€.

I just rented a car from Europcar through Kemwell in Provence and had no mysterious unusual charges that were not explained. The bill has always explained any charge on it (like the example above. Any invoice has itemization of the charges, I don't know how Europcar could give you an invoice and have it be blank next to a charge.

OK - now I understand what an "Ecologic" is - that must be something new, I don't remember it being on the final invoice last year. We rented an automatic this year because my wife has a hand that isn't working real well - and I agreed to do some of the driving (I am a 1 hand & 1 foot driver).

So - all of the 127E extras are legit - which I figured they were.

Some "incorrect" charges we've received from Europcar in the last 5 years have been:

1. We returned our car on July 15 in Avignon. The final invoice said that we returned it on July 1 in Tours, and that we accepted CDW - which we did not. Obviously, Europcar processed someone else's return against our contract. AutoEurope could not get the actual 1st copy of the contract we signed from Europcar, so AutoEurope refunded the CDW cost to us out of their pocket.

2. We were charged for gas, even though we returned the car with a full tank. Again, AutoEurope could not get the actual return papers from Europcar, so AutoEurope again refunded the gas cost out of their pocket.

3. The final Europcar invoice charged us for a second driver - which we did not sign up for. The cost was refunded to us (don't remember who actually did the refund)

4. We reserved a class C car (or something like that). There must have been an error between what Europcar called a class C and what AutoEurope called a class C, because when the Europcar person showed us the car in Nice, it was a huge bus. There are only 2 of us. The Europcar person said "oops", and went back to the office, voided the class C contract, and did a new contract for a smaller car. When the final invoice arrive at our house, there was a charge for a 1 day rental of a class C car, which was returned with an empty tank of gas. The Europecar agent obviously screwed up the "void" of the class C car.

Just a few things that can go wrong !!!

Stu Dudley

I do not have a fee schedule from Périgueux because they just gave me back the one I received from CDG since it was the same car. There it lists the following potential fees:

Licence and Fees: 29 Day 0.70 EUR/day
Special Equi Rent 1 rental
Special Equi Repl 1 20.00 EUR (not applicable)
Fuel Charge 1 rental
Refuelling Servic 1 11.29 EUR (not applicable)
Pr Station charge 1 Rental 31.50 EUR
Fuel Charge Litres 1.86 EUR (not applicable)

This was on the printout that I originally received as I first picked up the car in CDG. Should I have questioned some of them? Perhaps. But the end of my Sicily trip report explains why I was not paying too much attention at those charges. Moreover, I have never had this problem with rentals before. At any rate, none of the listed non-applicable charges were levied against my credit card. So the difference between the legitimate 61.95€ charge and the 130€ I was charged is still not explained.

Apparently you don't have the final accounting -- just the form you got when you collected the car, right?

Then do what kerouac and/or stCirq recommend -- an e-mail or phone call should get you the info. You have no idea what the charge was so a bit early to be calling for "consumer protection help".

Once Europcar processes your final invoice, you AND AutoEurope will receive a copy (electronic copy for AE). I would think the final invoice should occur at the same time the charge hits your credit card. Call AutoEurope Customer Service to find out if they have received their electronic copy yet, and what the 130E detail says. It takes about 1 week or a little less for the mail to go from France to San Francisco.

Your 130E is almost identical to my 127E charge. The only discretionary charge on my invoice was for the second driver. If you also had a second driver - I think your 130E is legit. CDG pickup might be 3E more than a RR pickup. My rental was for 28 days - 1 day less than yours.

Stu Dudley

"now I understand what an "Ecologic" is - that must be something new"

It appplies to new vehicules bought after January 1, 2008.
The car you rented was probably bought before that date or the level of CO2 emissions was acceptable in which case the tax does not apply. The more CO2, the higher the tax.

<i>You have no idea what the charge was so a bit early to be calling for "consumer protection help".</i>

Except that Autoeurope can't get an answer from them while they did within the week from CDG Europcar (the Périgueux agency is an independent contractor).

I did <b>not</b> have a second driver. The conditions for the Périgueux rental were absolutely identical to the CDG rental down to the number of days.

Although we have never had a problem that would warrant making a complaint, I wonder if anyone can comment on whether there is any "consumer protection agency" in France that is at all similar to what we expect in the USA. We have always assumed that "the customer is always wrong" was the dominant theme.

" I wonder if anyone can comment on whether there is any "consumer protection agency" "

There are several :
INC (Institut National de la Consommation)
DRCCRF (Direction Régionale de la Consommation, de la Concurrence et de la Répression des Fraudes)
Both are government agencies.

"UFC Que Choisir" - private organization, 124 regional associations, 124.000 members.

The DGCCRF (Direction générale de la consommation, de la concurrence et de la répression des fraudes) handles complaints:

http://www.minefi.gouv.fr/DGCCRF/contacts.htm

http://www.dgccrf.bercy.gouv.fr/anglais.htm (English)